Pro-Life portests health insurance

By Prabhat Mehta

MIT Pro-Life is renewing its efforts to have abortion coverage in the
Student Health Insurance plan made optional. Currently, the Institute's
group insurance provides abortion coverage for all members.

Juan A. Latasa '91, former vice president of Pro-Life, said Pro-Life is
not protesting the policy's coverage of abortion, but rather the
requirement that all students pay for it. The insurance plan pools the
resources of all members to provide its coverage, and thus uses funds from
all students to finance abortions.

At registration yesterday, Pro-Life members passed out slips of paper
asking students to support them by petitioning Linda L. Rounds, executive
director of the MIT Medical Department. "It seems only reasonable that the
coverage for abortion should be a matter of choice so that in the future
students with strong ethical objections to abortion are not forced to pay
for them," read the form.

Pro-Life also distributed fliers during Residence/Orientation Week
critical of the Student Health Insurance coverage of abortions, and erected
80 small white crosses and Stars of David in front of the medical center on
Friday. "The Cemetery of the Innocents" protested the abortions funded by
the insurance plan last year.

"MIT Pro-Life cannot simply settle for a `no' on this issue," Pro-Life
stated in a recent press release. "We will be taking whatever legal action
is necessary to oblige the administration to comply to our . . . demands."

On Wednesday, Latasa met with an attorney to consider possible legal
action against MIT if students are not allowed to waive abortion coverage.

Rounds said the Medical Department did not think students should be
allowed to get refunds for any particular part of the overall policy's
coverage. "We don't want to make special arrangements for any special
interest group," she said.

Pro-Life members first made their request for a refund last February, but
were turned down by Rounds, who felt that providing refunds to abortion
opponents would "instigate a chaotic system with different people wanting
refunds for different reasons."

In a memorandum circulated to Medical Department staff members on
Thursday, Rounds said, "Other individuals may also object . . . to paying
for illness caused by habits such as smoking or abusing drugs."

Latasa refuted that assertion. He said that since no other medical
procedure is as controversial as abortion, it should be given special
consideration. He also noted that Harvard University has for several years
been offering students the option of waiving abortion coverage with no
apparent difficulty.

Although Rounds has not spoken with Pro-Life members since last spring
(despite claims by Pro-Life that they have been engaged in "negotiations"
with the Medical Department), she said the Medical Department will still
consider the issue of abortion funding if student concern is substantial.
But she stated firmly that the Medical Department will not use the
insurance plan for any "political statement."